FORMER POLICE CHIEF CRITICAL OF HARPER'S DRUG MOVE

The former chief of the Seattle police, Norm Stamper, was in Calgary
lifting weights in a hotel gym on Monday, at the same time as
Canada's conservative prime minister, Stephen Harper, appeared on
television in a live broadcast of his speech to the Canadian
Professional Police Association's meeting in Ottawa.

Among other things, Harper promised to introduce tougher minimum
sentences for drug offences and to drop the Liberals' legislation
that would have decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana.

"That won a standing ovation from the police," says Stamper. "It made
me appreciate that I'm going into a number of venues where I'll be
talking to police officers."

A member of the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, Stamper is
touring cities in western Canada to talk about drug enforcement
policies. On April 12, the Vancouver Island Compassion Society is
bringing him to Victoria.

Stamper was a police officer for 34 years, serving his last six years
as the chief in Seattle, including during the WTO riots in 1999. He
retired in 2000, and recently published a book, Breaking Rank: A Top
Cop's Expose of The Dark Side of American Policing. "I had inklings,
even as a beat cop," he says, "that what I was doing wasn't
productive or succesful at creating healthier, safer communities."

In the 1990s he started speaking publicly about the failures of the
war on drugs. "I think the drug war has failed abysmally and it has
been very costly in terms of dollars and cents and in human lives,"
he says. "It's not a war on drugs, it's a war on people." The people
who get the brunt of it, especially in the United States, are
predominantly poor and of colour.

While members of LEAP agree that prohibition needs to end, says
Stamper, there is debate on how to move forward. "My personal view is
we ought to look at government licensing agencies to sell drugs," he
says. He proposes a system of control and regulation, similar to what
we do with alcohol.

"I don't see it as oxymoronic that people can take drugs
responsibly," he says. But when someone becomes an addict, they need
help to be available, in the same way an alcoholic would need help.

Harper's promise of stiffer sentences, Stamper says, is the wrong
approach. "The impulse is, 'let's round them up, lock them up and
throw away the key.' That's a recipe for disaster." Despite the
federal change in direction, the executive director of VICS, Philippe
Lucas, says there are promising signs in Victoria. "I think in
Victoria we're getting the rhetoric right now," he says. "But we're
seeing a real disconnect between the rhetoric and action."

Norm Stamper will speak from noon to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, April 12,
in the City of Victoria council chambers at 1 Centennial Square
(Douglas and Pandora). Free. Call 884-9821 for information.